I've got an 03 Avalon with moderate sludge and I'm half way through my 1st cleaning phase (just changed the filter after 1250 miles). I just now am seeing a fair amount of white smoke at start-up & am thinking that my valve seals may be leaking. I just bought this car with 96K miles on it & the previous owner changed the oil at about every 6k. As this hadn't happened before...I can only assume that Auto RX is indeed doing its job & maybe some of the previous sludge that may have been keeping the seals in tact is now dissolving...hence the cause of the leakage/problem.
I'm thinking of using a "stop leak" additive to help minimize the white smoke...but am concerned that by doing it now...I may interfere with the Auto RX process. So.......am wondering if it would be best to let RX run its course completely & then tackle the leak issue later.
I don't think it's condesation though. It doesn't dissipate into the air like condensation would. This stuff is fairly heavy & travels downwind for half a block still in tact. Yesterday afternoon on start-up...I did notice a little engine sputtering that went away after I blew it out on heavy throttle for about 5 seconds. Am not too concerned at this point though...just more of a nuissance than enything else. I'm going to replace the PCV valve for extra measure and just wait it out to see what happens after the rinse cycle.
In a couple of vehicles I've used ARX in I never got much in the way of results until I replaced the PCV valve. It should be noted that the valves had never been changed before, both vehicles having over 100,000 miles on them. The valves still rattled, so that tells you nothing.
In one vehicle all the oil leaks stopped immediatly after I changed the valve. In another vehicle the oil consumption went from a quart every 1,700 miles to a quart every 3,000 miles. I've learned my lesson, it's important to change our the PCV valve on a regular basis.
Usually if White Smoke is coming out of exhaust pipe which meant possible of Head Gasket failure, Blue Smoke is for the oil burning or overfilled and the Black Smoke is rich of fuel mixture. HTH.
-- Edited by ForeverFord at 11:03, 2009-03-12
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1994 Ford Granada Scorpio Cosworth Automatic 2.9i V6 24valves
Never has been blue smoke....but rather white smoke at start up & into the 1st 10minutes of driving. I did change the PCV valve (which was pretty gummed up) but that really hasn't had too much visible impact. I suspect/hope this problem will eventually go away after the rinse phase has been completed & I'm back on regular oil.
Having same experience on 2001 Avalon. This is oil smoke for first minute or two after engine is started. Smoking definitely got worse after first treatment of ARX. Now after several good clean and rinse we are going into the engine tonight to see if we can clean some of the sludge up manually. Owner got concerned about burning that much oil constantly. We did several shorter clean and rinse over 6000 miles, ever since the dealer condemned this engine. While we have it apart, we'll replace timing belt and water pump since he is at 140,000 miles.
AS an update to my previous post above, this car has now long been gone due to a crash during which no one was seriously injured. This was 2 or 3 weeks after having taken all the top and bottom engine covers off to clean the sludge out thoroughly. During this cleaning process, we found the rear bank oil drainback holes solidly plugged shut with heavy sludge. The nearly horizontal angle and small size of these rear oil drainback holes IMO is one of the design flaws of these engines and greatly contributes to the ability of sludge to buildup in these engines. After the drainback holes are plugged solid shut, it seems that it is nearly impossible to get any flow back through them without going in there and manually cleaning at least in this area.....I used a screwdriver and other tools to dig out/push through the sludge in these holes, and had to work at it for quite some time to accomplish the task completely, using solvents, etc. Nasty work, and not good for one's health.
For 2 or 3 weeks the car then ran without smoke at startups and oil consumption went back to a more reasonable level. Then his son, my nephew, totaled the car when he pulled out in front of an F150 on a pizza delivery.
The moral of the story here is to DO the maintenance such as oil changes ON TIME to PREVENT stuff like this! Change the oil with whatever oil you choose, and use the Auto-Rx maintenance dose if you want to optimize the cleanliness and performance of your engine. And most of all, don't let your 16 year old son drive the only family car by himself when he is late to work! Drop him off or something....
-- Edited by bmwtechguy on Thursday 17th of September 2009 11:01:29 PM
The smoke definitely got worse, as the seals were shot. As good as ARX is...I believe it would have taken several more cycles to get this one clean agan...and unfortunatley we could not wait that long. In addition...once the seals are that bad, even ARX can't bring them back .The engine had to be torn down & cleaned manually. The sludge was heavy & was everywhere! Goog ending though as I did some homework, approached the dealer very firmly & they paid for most of the cost to repair & rebuild the engine...which was approx. $3500. The key now is to change the oil at every 3,000 miles!
